When they have a tube strike in London what effect does that have on the tube? Is it all lines are shut down or only certain ones? I believe Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect are not run by TFL. So would they be affected by this strike? Trying to find out as there is one scheduled the Sunday I am to be in London.
Posted by
420 posts
So this is what happened to my family.
We were on our way from London to Paris when the train stopped in the tunnel. We sat there for 45 minutes. Finally an announcement said we would be returning to London. My looked up news on his IPhone and discovered that stricking MYferrylink worker burned truck tires thus blocking the Chunnel & tunnel. When they had done the exact same thing the Tuesday before, travelers traveling in Tuesday were not able to get Eurostar tickets out of London until Friday. I immediately booked tickets on my iPhone on British Air for travel to Paris the next day. The price was reasonable. However, when I checked again 1 hour late the price on British Air more than tripled. Furthermore, the following Tuesday striking workers did the exact same thing--3 Tuesday's in a row!
We dodged multiple strikes. The day after we left London the metro (buses & subway) went on strike. We met many other tourists who had been delayed by strikes. I don't mean to make you worry but strikes are VERY common.
Lucky for me my strike plan B worked. But we could only afford 1 strike. My children will remember it as the day we returned to London and Mommy bought everyone Harry Potter wands ($170). The same wands she said "absolutely not" to 4 days earlier.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
It depends on whether one line is affected or multiple ones. I would warn you though, do NOT expect to be able to travel easily by buses during an Underground strike. The extra vehicles on the road mean gridlock for pretty much the whole day and speeds well below walking pace.
Posted by
OP
27 posts
Thanks for all the replies. I am scheduled to be in London on May 15th and since I will be staying near Vauxhall station will just plan on walking to visit the local to that area sights. Can work around that. Just happened to be the weekend I was going to be there.
Posted by
TX
982 posts
I agree with the other comments, just plan on using cabs as a back up. Even the bus system can be unreliable during a tube strike. I was once on a bus replacement route during a tube strike and the driver got "lost" and added 10min to the journey then drove right past the station he was supposed to be stopping at and dropped everyone off 5 blocks away. I imagine he got "lost" on most journeys that day. Ah, the wonders of public transport employee strikes...
DJ